Somalia Could Be Next Target in War
Against Terror, Italian Minister Says

By

Yaroslav Trofimov Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated Dec. 6, 2001 12:01 a.m. ET

ROME -- Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino named Somalia, the former Italian colony in East Africa, as the possible next target in the war against international terrorism. Unruly Somalia, where the national government's control doesn't extend far beyond the capital city of Mogadishu, has been designated by several Western intelligence agencies as one of the main bases of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

The U.S. classifies Somalia's powerful Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya movement as a terrorist organization, and last...